The Quotes canon

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Stories19 quotes
Among all men on Earth, bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the Muse has taught them songs, and loves the race of bards. — Homer · 700 BCWe tell ourselves stories in order to live. — Joan Didion · 1979Your heart's desire is to be told some mystery. — Cormac McCarthy · 1985The sailor talks of breezes: the ploughman, of oxen: the soldier counts wounds, the shepherd counts sheep. — Sextus Propertius · 24 BCPlot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. — Ray Bradbury · 1990Through story, every culture defines itself and teaches its children how to be people and members of their people. — Ursula K. Le Guin · 2002All 19 quotes →
Plot2 quotes
Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. — Ray Bradbury · 1990When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand. — Raymond Chandler · 1950
Writing2 quotes
There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you. — Zora Neale Hurston · 1942When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand. — Raymond Chandler · 1950
There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you. — Zora Neale Hurston · 1942
Culture1 quote
Through story, every culture defines itself and teaches its children how to be people and members of their people. — Ursula K. Le Guin · 2002
I cannot tell my story without reaching a long way back. — Hermann Hesse · 1919
Fiction1 quote
Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity. — G.K. Chesterton · 1901
Your heart's desire is to be told some mystery. — Cormac McCarthy · 1985
Law1 quote
No set of legal institutions or prescriptions exists apart from the narratives that locate it and give it meaning. For every constitution, there is an epic, for each decalogue a scripture. Once understood in the context of the narratives that give it meaning, law becomes not merely a system of rules to be observed, but a world in which we live. — Robert M. Cover · 1983
Literature1 quote
Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity. — G.K. Chesterton · 1901
Narratives can make us understand. Photographs do something else: they haunt us. — Susan Sontag · 2003
There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years. — Willa Cather · 1913
Poetry1 quote
Among all men on Earth, bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the Muse has taught them songs, and loves the race of bards. — Homer · 700 BC
Poets1 quote
Among all men on Earth, bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the Muse has taught them songs, and loves the race of bards. — Homer · 700 BC
I never feel spiritual anywhere except in the presence of my own stories. — Sherman Alexie · 2004
There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years. — Willa Cather · 1913
Your heart's desire is to be told some mystery. — Cormac McCarthy · 1985
The past1 quote
I cannot tell my story without reaching a long way back. — Hermann Hesse · 1919